The Rise of Aircraft Carrier Warfare

Style of Naval Warfare in the 20th Century

Jun 7, 2009

Naval tactics in the 20th Century represent a sharp learning curve in an era of high technology.

The Royal Navy and Capital Ships

The British Empire, riding high at the end of the reign of Victoria, had fought few major naval battles since the heady days of Trafalgar. Meanwhile, technology moved apace: by the beginning of the 20th Century armored battleships, mounting shell guns with calibers as great as 18 inches were lofted as the future ships-of-the-line.

New Age of Sea Warfare; World War I

Though this sounded superb in theory, by the 20th Century Europe’s navies were somewhat decrepit: even the vaunted British Royal Navy was slow and under-gunned compared to the state-of-the-art productions of militarist Japan and Germany.

The Japanese and Russian navies had clashed during the Russo-Japanese War, in which the poorly-trained and aged Baltic Fleet undertook a round-the-world sortie to the Pacific only to have the fleet annihilated by the Japanese. During World War I the first major use of submarines signaled a new form of naval warfare other than surface ships. The British did finally achieve an important battleship-versus-battleship victory at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Beginning of Carrier Warfare

Treaties established after World War I limiting the number of battleships that each country could support were seized by some to convert underway construction projects into aircraft carriers. This was a vital development for the future conflict and for naval history.

Having said that, however, some time into the Second World War, the expectation was that naval warfare would continue to be defined by Jutland-type engagements, despite the obvious developments in submarines and naval aviation. The aircraft carrier was viewed early on as a support for amphibious landings but not a lot else besides.

Pearl Harbour was an attempt to demolish the battleships of the US Pacific Fleet so the Japanese would not have to risk the battleship-battleship battles too early in the war. However, through a stroke of fortune, the American carriers were not in Pearl Harbor when Japan attacked. The American battleships had been obliterated, and the US Navy had to make do with what they had; what they had were aircraft carriers.

Carriers Become Supreme

Lack of air support brought disaster elsewhere: precautionary allocation of Force Z of the Royal Navy to Singapore brought the battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse, but their aircraft carrier backup was lagging behind, so that when the Japanese did strike, with overwhelming air support, both ships were sunk in their ports, and despite having 3:1 odds in their favor, the British garrison surrendered.

With admittedly heavy losses, at the Battle of the Coral Sea, the loss of aircraft carrier cover doomed the Japanese campaign in New Guinea. Following on from that, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto sought out a decisive engagement to destroy the American carrier fleet, by sending his own carriers against Midway Atoll. However, the doctrine of seeking out the decisive battle was a holdover of the battleship era, and the elusive maneuvering of carrier warfare did not lend itself to that style of battle. In the end, all four of Japan’s best carriers went up in flames.

The final indignity to the battleship doctrine in the Pacific came during the American invasion of Okinawa. Desperate, Japan sent its flagship, the giant Yamato, to provide fire support to the island’s defenses. Caught unguarded, American dive and torpedo bombers pounded the ship until it foundered and then exploded.

Modern Age

Battleships today are a very minor part of any navy, if they are retained at all. Small capital ships and aircraft carriers dominate, and these are mainly platforms for aircraft and long-range missiles. In short, air power is supreme.

Bibliography

Jonathan Booth, Narr. “Pearl Harbor,” “Midway,” “Road to Okinawa” Battlefields. TV Series. Available online at http://www.youtube.com/user/Nemeziss200

Macintyre, Donald G. F. W, The Battle for the Pacific, Angus and Robertson, 1966.

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